


Rings of Gold

by lionessvalenti



Category: Black Panther (2018)
Genre: Age Difference, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, F/M, Soulmate-Identifying Marks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-22
Updated: 2018-09-22
Packaged: 2019-07-06 00:33:35
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15874896
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lionessvalenti/pseuds/lionessvalenti
Summary: Bucky lost his soulmark a long time ago. It doesn't mean he lost his chance at a soulmate.





	Rings of Gold

**Author's Note:**

  * For [tielan](https://archiveofourown.org/users/tielan/gifts).



Bucky dunked his head beneath the water, letting the cool lake surround him completely, sinking down to the muddy floor. He held his breath until his lungs burned before he pushed off of the ground and surfaced with a gasp.

"I wasn't sure if I should jump in and rescue you."

He spun around, pushing the wet hair out of his eyes, to see Shuri sitting at the shore. Her shoes sat lined up next to her, her feet in the water. He smiled.

"Isn't that all you do?"

She grinned, her whole face lighting up. "You _are_ very time consuming, White Wolf. Do you mind the company?"

Bucky shook his head. "Not at all."

He was no longer a staple in her lab. Not long ago, he was practically living there, under surveillance (his idea) and undergoing constant brain scans and tests. Despite his distaste for labs, he enjoyed Shuri's company. She had an easy way about her that made him feel comfortable. Like he was himself. And he hadn't been himself in a long time.

Now, he had a small home by the lake. It was far from the rest of the society. He didn't think he could lose control anymore, but he didn't want to intrude among the people. They had a culture, and he wasn't part of it. His company these days generally consisted of kids coming to the lake to fish. Shuri was a pleasant surprise.

Shuri stood, the water up to her ankles, and began pulling at her top. He turned away to give her some privacy. The lake water was clean, but opaque. They could both easily swim naked without seeing a thing.

The gentle waves moved toward him as Shuri swam closer. He turned back toward her, everything covered by the water from her shoulders down.

"What brings you out this way?" he asked as they treaded water in circles around each other.

"You," she replied with a smile. "If you don't come see me, I have to make house calls. But on a hot day, a lake call is better. Especially on a day when I needed to clear my head."

"New projects not going well?" Bucky enjoyed hearing her talk about the new gadget or upgrade she was was working on. She never minded when he asked her questions about the technology, happy someone wanted to hear about all the particulars and details.

Shuri lifted a hand out of the water to rub across her chin. A couple of droplets fell from the side of her jaw. "They're fine. But sometimes, when I get too busy, when I'm maybe doing a little too much, I feel this pain right between my shoulders, and that's the sign that I need to get some fresh air. Stretch my limbs."

To prove her point, she raised both arms out of the water, stretching them high over her head. Bucky smiled at the display, his gaze drawn to the flash of gold on the inside of her left arm, just above the bend in her elbow. It was two circles, one inside the other, with a third at the bottom, the lines running through it. Simple. Unmistakable.

Bucky's smile faded and the comfortable lake water might as well have turned to ice. It was easy to recognize a soulmark when you saw one. It's even easier when it's the exact same as the one you once had on your own arm.

How had he not noticed? Had she always covered it up in his presence? Had he forgotten he ever had a soulmark? No, you don't forget the thing that ties you to another person. Even now that it was gone, the mark was still in him.

"Bucky?"

He snapped back to the moment. Rarely did she call him by his name, sticking usually to White Wolf, like most of the locals, so it felt sharp to hear it from her. Luckily, he had a habit of zoning out anyway. Shuri didn't seemed concerned, exactly, but quietly patient, waiting for him to respond.

"What did you say?" he asked. "I'm sorry."

"I was telling you about the world leader's gala. The event full of boring old white men my brother's holding."

He forced a smile, trying to make the moment as normal as it had been seconds before. Or maybe it had been minutes now, there was no way of knowing. "Hey now, I'm an old white man."

She laughed, her voice carrying across the water. "But you're not boring. It's part of the initiative of opening up Wakanda to the rest of the world. We can't send aid and resources without having an event to wine and dine everyone into knowing we're serious."

"Politics," Bucky said dismissively.

"Exactly." She moved a little closer to him, within arm's reach, if he stretched his arm out to her. "Would you like to come?"

He stared at her for a moment. "Would I like to come to an event full of world leaders I maybe tried to assassinate?"

From the way Shuri pursed her lips, it seemed she hadn't considered this fully. "Well. Maybe you assassinated their predecessors, and they are very grateful for your service."

He chuckled, leaning his head back into the water. "I don't think it works that way."

"No?"

"No." 

Shuri laughed again. "Plan B: after an hour, you fake an emergency so I have to leave and tend to you."

Bucky nodded. "That I can do for you."

She moved in close, her arms raised again, like she was going to hug him, but then seemed to remember that they were both naked and stopped. Bucky couldn't help himself, his eyes flickered back to her soulmark, and this time she noticed. She stretched her arm out across the surface, her fingers nearly touching his chest, so he moved back.

"No soulmate yet," she said, tracing over the gold lines with her the index finger of her opposite hand.

"You're young," Bucky said quickly. "And there's a whole world out there. Maybe one of those world leaders will bring their son and there he is. And you won't need me at all."

Shuri smiled faintly and tilted her head up to look at him. "Did you ever find yours?"

It took all he could do to shake his head no. "Probably gone to history, just like my mark."

"Left arm, too?" she asked brightly.

"Yes," he rasped.

Her smile was radiant now. "At least it's convenient. I know a boy whose mark is on the inside of his thigh. He said he's never shown in it to anyone because they think he's kidding. But I guess if he ever meets that person, it'll take care of itself."

Bucky nodded. He kicked away from her, closer to the shore. "I think I'm going to take a nap. Old man, remember?"

"I remember."

He got out of the water first, drying off quickly with a towel before tying it around his waist. He kept his back turned while Shuri dressed, and stayed that way until she tapped his shoulder. When he looked at her, her clothes were stuck to her wet body in awkward ways, the sleeves of her shirt not quite fitting right.

"Thank you for the swim, White Wolf," she said. "And I'll need you in my lab for the gala. I'm counting on you to save me from ultimate boredom."

"I'll be there," Bucky replied, and he watched as she walked away.

Alone, he retreated into his little hut and tried to parse out what he couldn't with Shuri right across from him. Letting his mind go quiet, the pieces slot together easily. The way he felt comfortable in her presence when anyone else made his skin itch, how her smile calmed him. He thought it was just her easy going personality that he would have been certain she charmed everyone. Was it only him?

Maybe it was all a coincidence. He'd never put much thought into a soulmate now that his soulmark was gone. Maybe the other end of Shuri's still belonged to someone else. Someone age appropriate, someone who was soft, and kind, and had never picked up a weapon in their life.

Except he knew soulmarks were like fingerprints. No amount of time, not even eighty years, could change his mark, or hers. He'd have to tell her, and then tell her why it could never work. There were plenty of people in the world who never found their soulmate and happily lived their lives with other people.

Sometimes soulmates weren't even lovers, but confidants. Some of the most intense relationships could be friendships, and Bucky knew that from his own experience. He used to joke that if he and Steve had platonic soulmates, they'd have been linked up to each other.

This was something else. That was what scared him.

* * *

The night of the gala, Bucky waited in the empty lab. He helped himself to one of the bottles of water from the mini-fridge and sat up on the end of a table, the toes of his boots barely scraping against the floor.

He twisted around when he heard the door open and moments later, Shuri appeared wearing a long gold and silver beaded dress, her arms bare, her collarbones exposed. Her braids were pulled up on top of her head in an intricate bun, and she was bright gold eyeshadow that made her skin look warm and radiant, and matched the gold of her soulmark.

In short, she took his breath away.

"Boring as you thought it'd be?" Bucky asked a beat later, regaining his composure as quickly as he'd lost it. He was nothing if not adaptable.

"Worse," she replied as she approached him. "Especially when there are so many more interesting things to be thinking about."

"New project?" he asked, glancing around the lab. He'd been there often enough, he knew the signs. She kept her space clean and free of clutter -- unless she was working on something new. Then, a desk or a table would be covered with whatever she thought she might need to put that first prototype together.

"Research." She moved closer to him until she was just outside of his personal space. She couldn't quite reach out to touch him, but another step, and he could have wrapped her up in his embrace. "Aren't you going to tell me how pretty I look? I clean up nice, right?"

Bucky swallowed. "You look beautiful. But I think you know that."

A slow smile spread across her face. She made a motion like she was going to come closer, but she turned away instead, going for her desk. "I know a lot of things." She picked up a paper and handed it to him. "Why didn't you tell me?"

He looked down at the paper and for a moment, everything stopped. It was a picture of him and Steve, probably taken about 1940. They were sitting together on a fire escape, laughing about something, a cigarette pinched between Bucky's fingers. They were both in long pants and undershirts, and despite the grainy quality the the image, Bucky's soulmark was clearly on display.

He didn't need to ask where she got it or how she found it. He didn't even need to ask why she'd looked for it in the first place. They'd been talking about soulmarks and his was gone. She was curious. Maybe it was an invasion, but considering the circumstances, Bucky could hardly judge her for it.

Finally, he looked up at her. "What did you expect me to say in five minutes of realizing?"

"Not that I had my whole life ahead of me to meet someone, or I'd meet them soon," Shuri replied without missing a beat. "That's cruel."

"You're right, it was. I apologize." Bucky set the picture aside. "I panicked a little. I honest to god thought whoever my soulmate would have been died a long time ago. I had to process it."

"Would you have told me?"

Bucky knew how to lie and how to make it sound convincing. But maybe he couldn't lie to her. He paused far too long, and he didn't have to say anything at all.

Shuri's hands balled into fists. "You don't get to make those decisions."

"What decision is there? You're seventeen and I have a centennial. Being soulmates doesn't change that."

"It doesn't need to be changed, it just needs to be accepted."

Her counter argument was sound, and executed calmly. He had a feeling she'd prepared for it, and he hadn't even thought to study for the test. "And everything else? We just need to accept that I'm a murderer?"

"That is _not_ \--"

"You're a princess for fuck's sake," Bucky continued, and Shuri's eyes flared at being interrupted. "Do you think your mother is going to approve of you being with some white outsider? A broken old man?"

Her anger faded into compassion. "I don't see you that way."

"Everyone else will." He felt himself shrink slightly as he revealed his deepest insecurities. He was ruined, and he wasn't going to take her down with him.

Shuri stepped closer to him, reaching up to touch his cheek with her hand. Her caress was soft and her skin warm, and Bucky leaned into it before he could even stop himself. "Not if you're with me. Not when they know you're my soulmate." She leaned in close and she kissed him.

Bucky froze. Every part of him seized up as her mouth met his, but then he relaxed into it. His hand found her hip, the beads on her dress scratching against his palm as he pulled her even closer to him. She made a quiet noise into his mouth, her hand slipping around to the back of his neck. It was so easy. It felt like the most natural thing in the world, and he could have gotten completely lost in her kiss, but--

He pushed her back. He got up from the table and moved away from her. He couldn't think straight when she was that close. "I can't do this."

"Why not?" Shuri asked. She lifted her chin, her jaw set defiantly. "You don't want me?"

"That's not -- I do." His heart felt like it was going to burst right out of his chest. "You shouldn't want me just because of some mark on your arm."

"I wanted you before I ever knew," Shuri said, and her words actually made Bucky take another step away from her. She only moved closer. "I told myself everything you're saying now, but those feelings didn't come from nowhere. They're part of me."

Bucky wanted to reach for her. God, he wanted to hold her. And that was why he couldn't stay. 

She must have been able to read his face, because she sighed, almost with disgust. "Must you deny yourself everything? Are you going to punish yourself forever? Something out there wants us to be together, and you're going to say no? White Wolf, you can't run away from this."

Bucky shook his head. "Yes, I can."

And he left.

* * *

Seven days later, Bucky stood on a landing pad with a duffel bag slung over one shoulder. The jet landed, and when the door opened Steve walked out to greet him.

"I really didn't think you were interested in the heroing business," Steve said, pulling Bucky in for a hug.

Bucky squeezed him and stepped back. "It's time for a change of scenery."

Steve gave him a strange look, like he knew there was a hell of a lot more to this than the view. But he was distracted by T'Challa approaching them. He was carrying a large black case in his left hand, his right extended to Steve.

"You're Highness," Steve said, shaking his hand. "Thank you. For everything."

T'Challa smiled. "Captain Rogers." He turned his gaze to Bucky. "White Wolf. We're sad to see you go."

"And I appreciate all you've done for me," Bucky replied, "more than you could even know, but it's time."

"Well, know you're always welcome here." T'Challa handed the black case over to Bucky, who took it from him. "My sister claims she's far too busy to say farewell, but she wanted you to have this. She said you'd know what to do with it."

Bucky's face got hot at the mention of Shuri, but nothing in T'Challa's expression seemed to indicate that he knew anything of soulmate statuses, or the fact that Bucky had kissed his sister. He swallowed, squeezed the case handle hard in his hand. "Thank you. And thank her for me."

"I will," T'Challa replied. "I'm sure we'll see each other soon."

Bucky smiled hollowly and nodded before walking up the ramp and boarding the jet. Steve followed him and the doors closed. They sat down next to each other as the jet rose into the air and flew out of the Wakanda airspace. Bucky greeted Natasha and Sam once he was up and moving around, and then disappeared into the back.

"You gonna tell me what happened?" Steve asked as he followed him.

Bucky didn't reply right away. He knelt down on the floor, carefully setting the black case in front of him. He popped open the latches and lifted the lid. Inside was an arm made from vibranium. It was beautiful: black with a gold inlay. It was art, clearly created with love. This wasn't something Shuri had whipped up in the last week; she'd been putting this together for a long time. And she had crafted it for specifically for him.

Steve let out a low, impressed whistle. "That's some parting gift."

"Yeah," Bucky said faintly. He picked it up and turned it over, the palm facing up. Just above the bend of the elbow the gold inlay made up two rings, one inside the other with a third at the bottom. He looked up at Steve. "It sure is."

* * *

Most days, Bucky enjoyed what he was doing. He liked helping people, and doing it all alongside his best friend. It seemed almost natural that after everything, this is what he and Steve were doing.

It was the long nights that got to him. He never lost sight of the fact that he'd run away. He left, and he regretted it ever since, but the longer he was gone, the harder going back became.

"She's got to hate me," he said to Steve one night. Steve had figured it all our pretty quickly, being the only one who recognized the artificial soulmark. He was a smart guy, putting two and two together.

"Pal, there's no way she can hate you more than you hate yourself right now," Steve replied. "And if we're being honest here, I don't think you're afraid of her hating you. You're afraid that she won't."

Bucky stared at him for a moment and then sighed. "Yeah."

"You want to go back? I'll turn this ship around right now if you want me to."

"I don't think I can."

Steve gave a him a smile. It was sad and supportive in a way only he could manage. "You're going to have to someday. Even if you never want to see her again, we can't avoid Wakanda forever. T'Challa's a good ally, and someday we're going to need his help."

Bucky groaned, covering his face with his hands. "T'Challa will kill me."

Steve just laughed. "No, he won't. We make a lot of exceptions for soulmates. He will too."

"You think so?"

"I do. But he's not the one you're worried about." Steve sat down next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "I don't know how you do it. You know exactly where your soulmate is and you're out here with us. If I--" He broke off, and Bucky felt, if possible, even more guilty. Steve's soulmate was Peggy, and he was never going to get those years back.

"To tell you the truth," Bucky started, and then he paused, taking a slow, deep breath. Steve waited while he gathered his thoughts. "I don't know how I do it, either. I just have to hope it's not hurting her as much as it's hurting me."

Steve shook his head. "That's the thing with a soulmate, Buck. You carry the pain together."

* * *

Even with his stomach twisted up with nerves, Bucky liked the feeling of Wakandan soil beneath his feet. It had been too long. This was his home, and he knew it, the same way he knew the first thing he had to do was find Shuri.

The lights in the lab were dimmed giving the room an almost eerie feeling. Bucky turned a corner and saw Shuri silhouetted in the the bright light of the lamp on her desk. She wore a white wrap skirt and a white cropped top. She'd changed her hair since the last time she'd seen him, now in curls at the top of her head and shaved close on the sides.

How the hell had he left her?

"Should have known it would take the end of the world to bring you back," she said, her back to him. "Three years is a long time, White Wolf."

"I know. I'm sorry." He paused. The apology was weak, but so was he. "I didn't think I'd be gone this long. I didn't know how to come back."

"I thought you might have forgotten me."

Bucky's throat tightened. "How could I?" he asked hoarsely. "All I had to do was look down at my arm, and there you were."

Finally, she turned, a faint smile on her face as she glanced down at the soulmark she'd placed on him. "I was angry when you left. I was angry that you rejected me and I wanted to make sure you knew it."

"I did. I got the message loud and clear."

"I tried to move on, you know." She crossed her arms and leaned back against the desk. "I traveled, I met new people. Had a couple boyfriends."

Bucky clenched his jaw, but he maintained eye contact. If she was going to look him in the eye for this, he wasn't going to look away. He made his choices, and now he had to listen to the consequences.

"Some of it was fun," she continued, "but it was empty. I always felt like I was looking over my shoulder for you."

He took a shuddering breath. "I was selfish."

"So was I."

"And I hoped that you could forgive me for running away."

Shuri considered him for a moment. "Only if you can forgive me."

He blinked. "For what?"

"You shouldn't have run, but I shouldn't have pushed you so hard. It wasn't until later, months later, when I was still nursing my wounds that I realized being soulmates doesn't make the problems magically disappear. It still takes work. You understood that, and I refused to see it. I wanted everything immediately. I was a girl with a crush and you were scared. But we could have built something. Slowly. Together."

A strange sense of relief washed over him. It had been so easy to blame himself completely, because that was what he did. But that wasn't how this worked. They were soulmates. They carried the burden together.

Bucky slowly closed the gap between them, his heart pounding harder with every step. "Well, the world might end tomorrow, so maybe it's a good time to start over." He reached up and tucked to fingers under her chin, tilting her face up to look at him. "I missed you every day."

Shuri smiled. "Are you going to kiss me, White Wolf?"

'I've been thinking about it." He paused, long enough to study her face, as if he ever could have forgotten a single detail, and then leaned down to kiss her. She swelled to him, her hands slipping around the back of his neck. Her mouth opened to him, and he moaned, a hot, tingling arousal coursing through him.

Her hands dropped to his shoulders and she jumped up into his arms, her legs wrapping around his waist. Something on her skirt ripped loudly, but she squeezed him tighter as his hand slid down under her backside to support her.

"Too fast?" she asked breathlessly. Her fingers trailed down the side of her face, and he shook his head.

"Maybe it's the impending apocalypse, but I'm not scared anymore," Bucky said. He licked his lower lip and added, "And I'm done denying myself."

Shuri laughed and kissed him again. She buried her face in his neck as he carried her over to the nearest empty table and set her down carefully on the edge.

"Tell me what you want," he said in a low voice, his lips brushing against her neck. She shuddered and pulled back a little. Bucky took her cue and let his hands fall from her waist. For an instant, he wondered if he maybe he'd gone too far, but that faded just as quickly, when he saw the look in Shuri's eyes.

She pulled at the tie on her skirt and it fell open, revealing the nothing she wore underneath.

"Oh," Bucky breathed, his hands already moving toward her inner thighs. He glanced up at her face and she grinned. She grabbed the front of his shirt, pulling him closer to her.

"I knew you were coming. I took a gamble."

"Good bet," he replied, kissing her again. His flesh hand slid between her legs, his fingers finding her clit. He stroked it gently at first, an almost experimental touch of the pad of his finger against her. Her eyelids fluttered shut, and she gripped his shirt tighter and leaned forward, her forehead resting on his shoulder.

"White Wolf," Shuri moaned, rocking her hips against the pressure of his hand. She was hot and wet around him. He loved the way she said his name, pleading and desperate the longer he toyed with her clit. She was perfect, clinging to him, her breath warm and panting against his neck. Her whole body tensed with her orgasm, crying out, her voice echoing off the walls.

Bucky nuzzled up against the side of her face. "Like that?"

She lifted her head and laughed. "Fuck _me_." She finally released his shirt and leaned back on the table, her legs spreading. "That's not an expression -- fuck me."

He swallowed hard and opened up his pants as fast as he could before climbing onto the table with her. She cupped his face in her hands and kissed him as he leaned over her. One of Shuri's legs curled around his thigh, while the other dangled over the side of the table.

Bucky lowered his head and pressed a kiss to the soft curve of her stomach, and he felt her tremble beneath him. She shoved her hands into his hair and pulled at it.

"Inside me," she whined, squeezing his thigh tightly.

He laughed, nearly high off the feeling of her in his arms, and slowly pressed into her. She was so wet, she opened to him effortlessly. She threw her head back against the metal table with a soft _thunk_ , and moaned, tilting her hips up to get more of him. Bucky groaned, burying his face between her breasts, his beard catching on the soft cotton of her shirt.

"Did you think about this?" Shuri asked breathlessly. She pulled Bucky's hair again and it send a pleasant sort of pain down his spine.

He lifted his head and kissed the exposed skin above her collarbone. He had thought about this -- not only the sex, but the intimacy. Having her this close to him, holding her. Sometimes the longing got so bad he thought he was going to die. 

"I tried not to," he said, rocking into her with more fervor. His mouth found the side of her neck again and she moaned at the contact. "But sometimes I couldn't help myself."

Her fingers curled in his hair. "My White Wolf," she murmured. "I know what you mean."

Bucky kissed her mouth and it was all he could do not to come immediately. The feel of her around him, on him, under him, it nearly too much. "It feels so good to have you now," he croaked, thrusting harder now, barely able to contain himself. 

Shuri clenched around him, every part of her tensing as she came again. Bucky shoved his face into her shoulder and followed right after her. He slumped against her, trying not to drop his whole weight on her, but she didn't seem to mind. 

"The world can't end," Shuri said, sounding deeply satisfied. "We have to do that again."

Bucky laughed softly in her ear. "Did I mention that I like your hair?"

She grinned up at him, and he rested his head against her shoulder. They stayed like that until Shuri declared her legs were falling asleep. Reluctantly, Bucky climbed off the table, while Shuri reassembled her skirt.

"I'm going to clean up," she said. "There's another bathroom upstairs if you need it."

He did, taking a moment alone to process and center his thoughts. He had to focus on the task at hand, the stakes that had brought him back to Wakanda and to Shuri. Destruction was about to rain down upon them. He couldn't be smiling like a fool just because he made amends with his soulmate.

He splashed some cold water on his face and took a few deep breaths. It almost helped, the smile still tugging at the corners of his mouth.

When Bucky walked downstairs, Shuri was back at her desk, mulling over the screen from her kimoyo beads. He came up behind her and wrapped his arms around her waist, his hand coming to rest on her stomach. She made a happy little noise as she leaned back against him. He kissed her temple.

"So tell me how you're going to save the world."


End file.
